In addition to being a great composer, Igor Stravinsky was one of the most fascinating personalities of his time. His life spanned an amazing range of events and places - pre-revolutionary Russia, Europe in the years between the wars, and the United States between 1941 and his death in 1971.

Such masterworks as The Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring and many others fixed his reputation as a leading composer; his friendships - and often enmities - with most of his great intellectual contemporaries were famous. His personal life, which involved a double life between his official family and his mistress, was seldom placid. Touchy, unpredictable, witty and unfailingly brilliant, he is an ideal subject for a deeply informed and sophisticated biography.

The first volume of this definitive biography covers Stravinsky's life and work from his birth in 1882 through to 1934, with special focus on his Russian roots and his struggles to make his way in Switzerland and France. It draws upon a great deal of new material, including unpublished archival sources, to illuminate the genius of both the music and Stravinsky the man.